The Black Republican

When the AP "makes news", it's almost an art. In an article containing so much opinion that I kept looking for the "analysis" or "commentary" labels, they look into the phenomenon of how "Katrina Rallies African-Americans". Get out the duct tape.

To African-Americans, Hurricane Katrina has become a generation-defining catastrophe — a disaster with a predominantly black toll, tinged with racism. They've rallied to the cause with an unprecedented outpouring of activism and generosity.

Aside from the disgusting and predictable "tinging" - which only exists because the leftist press has been beating their annoying drums over it - I don't suppose I have much to argue against so far.

Blacks who have been touched by the disaster are not only donating money but gathering supplies, taking in friends and relatives, even heading south to help shoulder the burden of their people.

Remember when the Left had a cow when Ross Perot said "you people"? We're all Americans, Mr. Nameless AP reporter. 'Nuff said.

"You'd have to go back to slavery, or the burning of black towns, to find a comparable event that has affected black people this way," said Darnell M. Hunt, a sociologist and head of the African American studies department at UCLA.

A picture of Dr. Hunt I found at the UCLA website indicates he can't be old enough to have been an adult during the 1960's, so perhaps he'll use that as an excuse for his ignorance. You see Dr. Hunt, there was this catastrophe called "Jim Crow" that hung over all of the South for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Surely the legally-sanctioned denigration of the black population in America, and the innumerable firehosings, lynchings, and church burnings that went with it, have had a greater impact on the black community than any freak lightning storm, no matter how big - especially when you consider that Jim Crow was a man-made catastophe, right? RIGHT? WELL?!

If the rescue effort had not been so mishandled, and if those who suffered so needlessly had not been so black and so poor...

"So black"? When Wolf Blitzer said this, it was a "slip". What is it when you plan it out and write it down?

...perhaps Hurricane Katrina would have been just another destructive storm...

Hmmn. Where have I heard that before?

alongside the likes of Charley and Andrew and Hugo. (There is no Keisha or Kwame.)

Maybe there haven't been, but among the hurricane names up to bat next are Calvin, Chantal, Rosa, Selma, Yolanda and York. Why someone would root for names distinctive to their ethnicity to be included among those storms that will kill hundreds and displace thousands is beyond me. (How many parents do you know who are proud to name their kid "Adolf"?)

"You don't look at Rodney King and say, 'I remember when I got beat up.' But people remember being neglected, unimportant, overlooked, thought of as 'less than.' That's a very common experience for black people."

I'm sure it is. It also happens to describe my four years in high school. What does it say about you, that you're comparing a large, diverse group of people to the psychology of adolescence?

It has opened people's eyes — "The face, the cover has been pulled off the invisible poor," said Rev. Ronald E. Braxton of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. — and it has created a rare opportunity for people of all backgrounds to make a tangible, immediate difference.

There have been hurricanes before, and sometimes they've hit poor white neighborhoods. Why is this the first time "the cover has been pulled off" poverty? And why is it that we only notice poverty when it's "black" poverty? And since this comment suggests that "people of all backgrounds" can make a difference, why can't we show that this is bringing "people of all backgrounds" together? Why are we concentrating only on blacks who are helping "their people"?

Katrina has spurred other blacks to take crucial roles in relief efforts — and they're in a better position to help than they were even a decade ago, when rap still scared people and being paid $30 million per year to play basketball was beyond imagination.

David Robinson made $5.7 million in 1995. If you think that's chump change, can I have a Porsche? (Oh, and don't you love the gratuitious basketball reference? That year, Cecil Fielder made (only) $9.2 million playing the national pastime.) What's beyond imagination is that the AP would want people to buy any of this as "news".

(Thanks to Steve for helping assemble the links.)

UPDATE: Ace of Spades now has a take on this.

That's sorta why I avoid writing about race. It's a minefield. I kinda-sorta know what this guy was trying to say, but what he did end up writing was, basically, that if only Katrina had obliged all of our equal-opportunity wishes and killed more white people, it would have been no big deal.

White people don't count. Or, rather, it's just that black people count more. A lot more.

Don't be afraid, Ace. Jump right in, the water's warm - and it should be, since the MSM keeps telling me there's toxic chemicals and excrement floating around in here.

Ace actually gets the tip (obviously not me) from SWLiP, who links to some lovely follow-up comments from Cornel West.

What we saw unfold in the days after the hurricane was the most naked manifestation of conservative social policy towards the poor, where the message for decades has been: 'You are on your own'. Well, they really were on their own for five days in that Superdome, and it was Darwinism in action - the survival of the fittest.

There are so many places I could go with that, but for some reason my naked manifestator is on the fritz.